Screw socket assembly device

Abstract

Device for securing screw-shell in lamp socket housing. The device comprises a fixed mandrel for holding the terminal tab of the screw-shell which projects through a slot in the housing and a rotatable mandrel on the fixed mandrel for bending the ears adjacent the terminal tab so that the ears engage the socket housing adjacent the slot for retaining the screw-shell in the housing.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: 
     
       1. Apparatus for securing a screw-shell to a lamp socket housing, wherein the screw-shell has a terminal strip extending through a slot in the housing into a confined space between the slot and the open bottom of the socket housing, the terminal strip being formed at its free end with a terminal tab and a pair of oppositely projecting ears spaced axially away from the terminal tab, said apparatus comprising a fixed mandrel having a slot at its end for receiving the terminal tab, and a tubular mandrel surrounding and rotatable about said fixed mandrel, said tubular mandrel formed at its end with a pair of radially spaced projections for respectively engaging the opposite ears of the terminal strip, and means for turning said tubular mandrel for bending the opposite ears about 90° to the plane of the terminal strip while said fixed mandrel holds the terminal tab stationary. 
     
     
       2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, said projections having oppositely facing surfaces extending along a plane substantially normal to the axis of said tubular mandrel and having inner surfaces extending substantially concentric with said fixed mandrel. 
     
     
       3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, the adjacent ends of said fixed and rotatable mandrels being substantially co-planar, the slot in said fixed mandrel and said oppositely facing surfaces of said rotatable mandrel being aligned along said plane for receiving the terminal strip ears and tab prior to bending the ears. 
     
     
       4. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, said inner surfaces of said projections being spaced from the periphery of said fixed mandrel a distance at least about equal to the thickness of the terminal ears. 
     
     
       5. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, said turning means comprising pinion means on said tubular mandrel and rack means coacting with said pinion means and movable for turning said tubular mandrel in opposite directions. 
     
     
       6. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, including support means for supporting the lamp socket housing in a position wherein the terminal strip extends into said slot of said fixed mandrel and the terminal ears extend between said radially spaced projections of said tubular mandrel.